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Derry is a friendly place. I probably think that because our tour guide, Garvin, seems to know the world and his wife here and someone on nearly every corner is pleased to see him. It’s a hilly town and one man jokes that’s why no locals are fat – they burn off the calories pulling themselves up the city’s inclines. And it’s an Irish town too. Unlike in Antrim I see tricolours flying and the flag pins sold in shops come in green, white and orange only. It’s also European town. Had it not been for two London boroughs, each with a slightly higher 78% voting to Remain, the constituency of Foyle would have taken the crown as the most pro-European part of the UK. And this being Northern Ireland, where political views come shaped in rectangles and flown from lampposts, the blue and gold flag of the EU is often seen fluttering limply in the wind. Derry will be the only city in the United Kingdom to share a land border with EU come 2019, and Garvin worries about what impact a potential hard border could have. Spiritually Derry remains the capital of Donegal – the Republic’s most isolated county – and the destiny of the two are interlinked. They promote each other to tourists, buy each other’s goods and thousands cross an invisible line every day to work and play in the county next door. No one here thinks a hard border between such good neighbors would do anything but damage the peace process. The legacy of the Troubles remains an identifiable feature of this city. Like almost any municipal building in a city once under British rule the Guildhall, proudly home to Derry District Council, hosts a statue of Queen Victoria. That a council run by Sinn Féin retains a sculpture of the Famine Queen surprised me but look closer and you’ll see that the Empress of India is missing her hands. The statue was attacked by the IRA decades ago and while Her Majesty maintains her glum expression, the stone’s decapitated nature certainly humbles it. No one doubts the scars of sectarianism run deep, but most agree they’re healing. Symbolizing this is the Peace Bridge between the mostly Protestant and unionist Waterside community on one side of the Foyle River and the mostly Catholic nationalist citizens who live ‘Cityside’. A statue of two men extending their hands towards each other is meant to illustrate the healing between the city’s orange and green traditions. In that spirit of respect for the two communities the postcards I buy of Hands Across The Divide, in a studiously neutral fashion, call the city “Derry-Londonderry”. All the others just call it Derry. Agreement on the city’s proper name remains as elusive as ever but at least young lads from both sides agree it’s good craic to slip a can in between the hands of the two peacemakers. Drinking has always been a cross-community activity, it’s confirmed to me. Guinness’s nickname in these parts used to be Protestant Black Border. Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Derry is that it’s the only place in the world where two Nobel Prize winners sat side by side in a classroom. John Hume and Seamus Heaney both attended St Columb’s in the city – something I suspect might get mentioned in school assemblies once or twice a year. Afterwards we sped off to the nearby Seamus Heaney Home Place in his native village of Bellaghy. If you’re ever in Derry be sure to take the detour; the center is a magnificent testament to perhaps the greatest of all Irish writers. Pictures of the people and places important to him adorn the walls and the poems he wrote about them can be listened to – read aloud by the man himself. It’s all very charming and even if like me, you haven’t grappled with his poetry since school I urge you to go. Looking at his work with fresh adult eyes was a revelation and I’ll leave you with a poem he wrote about his home. “Derry I cherish ever. It is calm, it is clear. Crowds of white angels on their rounds At every corner.”